October 28, 2007
Debbie Graham
Jeremiah 31:27-34
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8


We have just heard a story that if it were published in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, might have the headline “Bag Lady Wins Against City Hall”.

The people Luke wrote to would consider this story pretty amazing, even a little comical. The judge, who freely admits he's not afraid of God and he doesn't care what people think of him, becomes afraid of this nondescript widow who keeps badgering him for justice. Luke actually says that he's afraid she'll give him a black eye! Our translation tones down this story a bit.

Here is a widow, who in Jesus’ time, had fewer rights than a homeless woman on the streets of any city in our nation. A woman in the first century was either under the rule of her father – or her husband. If a woman's husband died she was either to return to her father's house or if her father wasn’t living, to the house of a brother. If she didn't have any brothers, she would be defenseless against anyone who would try to exploit her.

The widow of our story was trying to win justice against an opponent who may have been keeping her from possessions or livelihood that were rightfully hers, from resources she needed for her very survival. She had very little, if any, legal status. On top of this, she must go before a judge who doesn't give a rip about God or people. He probably gave justice based upon money handed him under the table. This widow didn’t have money.

Judges were very powerful in Jesus' time. Their word was law. Their decisions were final. They had the power to hand out punishments such as beatings, imprisonment, or death itself. Yet this vulnerable widow had the courage and determination to keep after this judge. She keep after him to the point that he would give her justice just to get her off his back, to spare him a black-eye or loss of face. She was a pretty amazing lady.

Jesus used this story to teach his disciples to keep praying and not lose heart. So who in this story is God? Is God the Judge? – This is a parable about persistent prayer. The widow’s pretty persistent so that would make God the Judge, right? That’s a reasonable conclusion. Hmmm – What does that make God look like? If we badger God enough, God will give us what we want? If we badger God enough, God will give us justice? Great image of God!

Let's say God is the widow in this story. Then God would not have status or power. It is hard to imagine God has someone vulnerable, powerless, pleading for justice. Don't we say each Sunday that we believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty?

If it seems uncomfortable to have an image of God is a poor widow, consider Jesus. Here is a person who was born to a poor peasant family, in a nondescript town in a backwater, occupied land. His people lived at the mercy of the occupying Roman army. Jesus himself had no status except that of an itinerant preacher and there were plenty of those running around Palestine at that time. So the image of a poor widow is not that far off from the person of Jesus himself.

So, if God is the widow that would make us the judge right? Whoa, now that awful hard to take. Surely those of us in this room respect and worship God. If you don't respect God why be here on a Sunday morning? In the Bay area there is a lot of other things you could be doing on Sunday morning. And probably you don't get points for going to church on Sunday with your neighbors or your boss, unless your boss is the bishop.

In this congregation, we are people who do respect and have concern for our fellow human beings. This congregation serves open-door dinners to folks without homes once a month, has a Peace and Justice Committee and an Environmental committee. We are not like this judge. We - are - not - like - this - judge.

Yet, are there not times when the cries of those seeking justice become too much for us? When we read in the paper, or see on TV, or read on the Internet about people in need of justice: such as the 4 million people who have been driven from their homes in Iraq or the nearly one billion people living in substandard housing without clean water or adequate sanitation, or the 16,000 plus children who die of starvation each day, or the threat of global warming and pollution to our very existence – don’t our minds sometimes click off, say that’s enough, I’m out of here. Yet the persistent widow of global warming, extreme poverty and innumerable other injustices is not going to go away.

The believers in Jesus in Luke’s time were also facing numerous injustices. The economic policies of the Roman Empire were causing many poor people occupied lands to lose to one source of security they had – their ancestral lands. They are being taxed so hard that they had to sell those lands and were driven into economic slavery. Christianity was not very popular in the Roman Empire at that time. To become a Christian might mean the loss of economic status, livelihood and the even one's life. The community of believers Luke wrote to were longing for justice. for the coming of God reign.

This reign which Jesus proclaimed, is a reign where captives are released, the blind see, the oppressed are set free, and poor receive very good news. It is the time of God's own favor. It is a reign where nations shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; when nations shall not learn war any more and shall not be afraid.

This, folks, is what we pray for when we pray the Lord's Prayer, when we pray “your kingdom come.”

God's reign and God’s justice is not about retribution or punishment. God's justice is about restoring health and right balance to all relationships. God's justice is about all people living in peace, living a life that sustains them, that does not destroy what is needed for the all creation to flourish. Yet like Luke's community then don't we say, “Okay God when? When will your justice, your reign come?” Does not are gospel say God will not delay in bringing help, will quickly grant justice? There is a lot of injustice going on. What is this about?

Let's look again to the image of God being that widow, asking that judge for justice. The truth is folks; God needs us to bring justice to those in need of justice, to bring what is needed for life to those who are powerless and vulnerable in the world. God has no hands but ours, no feet but ours to bring justice and peace to the world. And that can be a huge burden except the first sentence of this story. Jesus said we are to pray always and not lose heart.

Prayer is about relationship with God. Jeremiah speaks of a day when people will have a new covenant, a new kind of relationship with God. This is a relationship of deepest intimacy where God's law of love and compassion is written on our very hearts, where God is not a stranger and we have to ask somebody about God for we will know God in the depths of our being. Jesus proclaimed that this day has arrived.

In Christ we are united with God. In Christ God gives God’s very self to us that we might be God’s justice and love in the world. God gives us life that we might give life to all that is around us. When we are in a position of privilege and power, which most of us in this room are, -- we have discretionary money, we have high levels of education, we can vote, – we can use our privilege and power to bring justice and life to those in need. There are an abundance of ways to do so in this congregation. Some of them I've already mentioned. The Episcopal Church has effective programs for relief work and relieving poverty. There are a number of peace and Justice Organizations right here in the Bay area.

The question is what exactly is God asking us to do? How does God want us to give life to others? It takes prayer to discern that and at times very persistent prayer. We can pray so in confidence because, as that great worker for Justice, Martin Luther King Jr, said, – paraphrasing Jesus, – "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor."

In this anointing of Spirit, we need not be afraid of the persistent widow, of the cries of God’s dear one’s for justice. We need not lose heart when we are in the persistent widow’s place longing for justice. In union with Jesus we can be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable. We can do the work of convincing, rebuking, and encouraging, and with the utmost patience do the work of God’s justice and love in this neighborhood, in the Bay Area, in the world.

Amen